Business Climate Resilience – Thriving Through the Transformation by Maria Mendiluce

“In advance of Climate Week, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched its report on Business Climate Resilience. Maria Mendiluce, WBCSD’s Climate & Energy Managing Director, provides her thoughts on how the report helps business to successfully address climate-related issues in ways that better both their business and society.”

Bill Sisson, Executive Director, North America, World Business Council for Sustainable Development

What follows is reposted from the World Business Council for Sustainable Development authored by Maria Mendiluce

The climate emergency is a present-day reality, and we see its effects every day. The world has already warmed 1°C above pre-industrial levels and we are on track to surpass a 1.5°C global temperature rise as soon as 2040.

Governments and the private sector must take urgent climate action. We must reduce emissions drastically, build climate resilience and make the transition to a net-zero emissions world that is aligned with the 1.5°C scenario of the Paris Agreement.

the environmental imperative to reverse the current degradation of the natural environment; and

the economic imperative, which shows a cost-benefit ratio of investing in resilience from between 2:1 and 10:1.

Ambitious mitigation is crucial to reducing long-term climate costs. It will deliver the deep and systemic transformation of global economies and associated business activity. It will require reprioritizing economic issues according to the magnitude of change that is required, the interconnected risks across our global systems, and the urgency of a rapidly diminishing timeframe.

Successful businesses will be those that are able to adapt to and thrive through this transformation.

This week the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched its report on Business Climate Resilience which highlights three key steps that businesses can take to build business climate resilience:

Develop and maintain ambitious mitigation efforts. If a business makes progress in its mitigation efforts, it becomes less vulnerable to disruptive risks, such as policy and legal measures, resource scarcity or adverse market developments.

Adapt to ensure business continuity in the face of climate-related physical risks. Businesses must assess and evaluate climate-related physical risks throughout their operations, supply chains and across the communities in which they operate.

Assess the connections, dependencies and value to society and nature. The connections, dependencies, and interrelationships between climate and society, climate and nature and climate and sustainable development will increase public pressure on the true purpose of business activities and the role of business in society.

The case for building adaptation and resilience is clear. However, it is not taking place at the immense pace and scale that is required.

We call on the business community to double down their efforts on building resilience. We also call on the public sector to strengthen win-win collaborations with the private sector. It is only by working together that we can adapt and increase our resilience.

The urgency of the climate emergency demands clear leadership and strong collaboration. Governments and the private sector have a crucial role to play.

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Publisher Notes

Welcome to Frontrunners Innovate – Networking Magazine for Global Innovators. From Co-Editor Robin Smith: Among Friedrich Nietzsche’s more indelible (and certainly less pessimistic) observations, the German philosophers once said, “One must still have chaos in oneself in order to give birth to a dancing star.” For all its adversity, the COVID-19 pandemic has provided perhaps the best stage for innovators to set themselves apart in critical ways of helping move our world forward, into the uncharted territory of the “New new.” With this issue, we’ve worked to cover some of those innovators, their offerings, and how each best fits into this new landscape.

It’s been a privilege to put back on the editor’s hat and work with Mary on this issue. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed the pursuit of an interesting profile and the collaboration of working to get it just right for everyone involved. I hope you find the stories here to be of interest — even better if they spark inspiration.

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Producing the 19th edition of Frontrunners Innovate on Self-Sustaining Continent-African Innovations for Development was a labor love for myself and Dr. Osita Aniemeka. The people who shared stories […]